This very short 6th grade story won me the right to spend my Saturday morning in the public library, along with the several other student winners, autographing copies of our stories for our eager public.

(Keep in mind, I wrote this in a single class period when I was 11 years old. :-)

Illustrator unknown (certainly not Dave)

Shoelaces
by David Lyons
6E/Penn School
10/3/1978

The giant sat on the supermarket roof. He needed a pair of shoelaces. And he wouldn't leave until he got them.

But there was a problem. Nobody seemed to have shoelaces big enough to fit a triple X large giant!

He tried to use garden hose. It worked, but it took too long to put all the different sections together.

So, he decided to try using under-sea telephone cable, but he couldn't break it apart to use it. There was only one thing left to do. He would have to find something to cut the cable with.

He took enough of the cable to use for his shoelaces and walked to Australia.

He located the volcano called Old Mouthful, and waited, and waited.

Then he read the sign next to it. It said: Out of order!

The giant had to find another volcano. He walked to Africa.

There was a volcano called Wonderful Geyserful. The sign said it was supposed to erupt in ten minutes. So he waited, but it was hard. He was a very impatient giant.

Finally it erupted. He held the cable over it. It melted through. But he had to wait another 10 minutes to harden the other end!

So he did. But in another ten minutes he did the other shoelace. Then he was happy. All he had to do now was find shoes!